85% of Israel's American Jewish Voters Pick Romney

American Jews who are living in Israel have cast their votes in the 2012 presidential election, and the result is astonishing, according to Abe Katsman of the Times of Israel: 85% of their votes were for Mitt Romney and only 14.3% were for Barack Obama. This enormous percentage of voters voting Republican would make Israel significantly redder than the most red state in the United States.

Obama’s support is 40% less now from Jews in Israel than in 2008. And that kind of anti-Obama sentiment is sure to cross the Atlantic. Most Jews in Israel have relatives in America who worry about them, and if Israeli Jews feel safer with Romney, their families will be moved by that.

The total number of American Jews voting in Israel is roughly 80,000. That’s about 25% of all ballots from all Americans living abroad. It represents 50% of all eligible U.S. voters in Israel, indicating that the American Jews there are greatly motivated to vote this year. That figure is double the number of ballots ever cast before. Compare that to Americans living abroad in other countries, who vote one-tenth of that frequency and are more likely to vote for Obama. What this shows is there is a strong correlation between voting for Romney and the passion to cast a vote.

A significant number of the American Jews living in Israel that broke with their party to vote for Romney, and even among those who had their own Congressional Democratic candidates to support, half of them voted for Romney anyway.

The strong Jewish move toward Romney bodes well for him; for roughly the last 100 years, any candidate receiving more than 30% of the Jewish vote won the election.

The most telling effect of the Jews’ support for Romney may be felt in the swing states; 7,500 Israel-based Floridians voted; in Ohio there were another 3,500, and Pennsylvania added another 3,500.

Obama’s contempt for Benjamin Netanyahu, his refusal to see Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, his coddling of Iran and other Islamist dictatorships; his betrayal of Israel with leaks — all of these and more have driven the Jews of Israel to realize he is never going to be their friend.